Improvement in lawn-mowers



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN MERRITT, JR., OF NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND CHARLES W. BEALS, OF SAME PLACE.

IAM PROVEM ENT IN LAWN-NIOWERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 89,230, dated April 20, i869.

To all persons to whom these presents may come:

Beit known that I, BENJAMIN MERRITT, Jr., of Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Grass-Cutters 5 and do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a top view, Fig. 2 a side elevation, and Fig. 3 a longitudinal section, of a mowing-machine or grass-cutter as provided with my invention. Fig. 4 is a section, on an enlarged scale, taken through one of the upper lever-knives and its pivot-pin, so as to show the spring-chamber and the spring, which are within the lever and about its pivot, and underneath the head thereof'.

The machine, as represented in the drawings, is what is termed a hand-mowiugor grasscutting machine, it being intended for use by manual power exerted to push it along over the surface of a piece of land to be mowed by it; but it maybe constructed so as to be worked by a horse, arranged between its side bars or shafts, and harnessed to them, so as to push the machine or its operative parts in advance of him.

In the drawings, A denotes a finger-bar frame, having pivoted to its rear a roller, B, provided with a serpentine cam or groove, C, extending around it near one end of it. There are pivoted on the journals of the roller B two levers, side bars, or shafts, D D', whose rear ends may be connected by a handle or bar, E, extended from one to the other of them. In the shorter arm of each lever is a curved slot, a, through which a screw, b, extends, and screws into the next adjacent side bar o of the iinger-bar frame A.

This application of the shafts or bars D D to the finger-bar frame A not only renders the handle adjustable to any desirable height to suit the convenience of a person while operating the machine, but it enables the roller and the n ger-bar frame to run over and on many of the irregularities of a surfacewithout the frame causing a corresponding vibratory movement of the handle, to the inconvenience or discomfort of the operative.

The finger-bar d is the crossbar of the frame A, there being extended from it a series of prongs or teeth, c e e. One series of cutting levers or knives, f f j', is pivoted to the upper surface of the iin ger-bar, there being between such lever-knives, or their fulcra g g g, the fulcra h h hof another series, i t', of such levers or cutters. There is one more cutting-lever in the lower series than there is in the upper series, the whole being arranged so that each cuttinglever of the upper series shall operate alternately with the next two adjacent cuttinglevers of the lower series. These cutting-levers are to be sharpened on their apposite edges in front of their fulcra. There extends between the tails of one series of such lever-cutters and those of the other series a thin plate, 7c, which,

at or near its extremities, is fastened to the,

finger-bar frame. This plate serves to keep grass or extraneous matters from getting between the rear arms of the lever-cutters, so as to impede their movements. It is also advantageous in other respects, and especially as a guide and a supporter for two bars, l l', which are arranged on opposite sides of it, and serve to connect the tails of the lever-cutters, there being one of such bars to one series of such tails and the other to the other series. Each lever-tail is to be so jointed or connected to one of these bars that when the bar is moved lengthwise back and forth it shall produce vibratory movements of the lever-cutters directly connected with it. The said bars ll havethe front arms of the levers m m' jointed to them. The said levers work on a common pivot or center-pin, n, supported by a standard, o, projecting up from the finger-bar frame, and arranged in front of the serpentine groove C of the roller B. From the rear arm of each of these levers a stud or fulcra roller, t, projects, and extends into the said serpentine groove, the same being as represented. Furthermore, there is a spring, p, placed on the fulerum or pivot pin l1J of each upper lever-cut-4 ter. It encompasses the fulcrum, and presses against its head and down upon the lever, so as to keep its blade in close contact with the next blade or blades of the lower series of cutter-levers or lever-knives. The said spring is arranged in a chamber, fr, in the knife-lever,

,such chamber being covered by the head s of the fulcrum pin or screw. By so covering the l ing the fulcrum-pin or clogging the joint of the lever with the finger-bar.

The employment of a single serpentine groove to operate the two levers arranged with and applied to it and the knives, as set forth, renders the machine simpler than it would be were there a separate cam-groove or serpentine groove to each lever.

By moving the machine over a surface to be mowed, and with the roller resting on the land, the roller will be revolved, and the knives will be vibrated, and act togetherlike the blades of scissors, and Will cut the grass as it may be introduced between their cuttingedges.

I make no claim to the employment of a serpentine groove to operate or vibrate a single lever connected with the knives, nor do I claim two series of vibratory knives arranged to operate together as shears.

I claim- 1. The arrangement and combination of the guard-plate k with the twoV series of leverknives and their eonneetingbars, the whole being applied to the linger-bar frame, as set forth.

2. I also claim the combination and arrange ment of the single serpentine groove O with the two levers and the two series of knives and the roller B, the Whole being applied so as to operate as set forth.

BENJ. MERRITT, JR. 

